[[mapping-source-field]]
=== `_source`

The `_source` field is an automatically generated field that stores the
actual JSON that was used as the indexed document. It is not indexed
(searchable), just stored. When executing "fetch" requests, like
<<docs-get,get>> or
<<search-search,search>>, the `_source` field is
returned by default.

Though very handy to have around, the source field does incur storage
overhead within the index. For this reason, it can be disabled. For
example:

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
{
    "tweet" : {
        "_source" : {"enabled" : false}
    }
}
--------------------------------------------------

[float]
==== Compression

*From version 0.90 onwards, all stored fields (including `_source`) are
always compressed.*

For versions before 0.90:

The source field can be compressed (LZF) when stored in the index. This
can greatly reduce the index size, as well as possibly improving
performance (when decompression overhead is better than loading a bigger
source from disk). The code takes special care to decompress the source
only when needed, for example decompressing it directly into the REST
stream of a result.

In order to enable compression, the `compress` option should be set to
`true`. By default it is set to `false`. Note, this can be changed on an
existing index, as a mix of compressed and uncompressed sources is
supported.

Moreover, a `compress_threshold` can be set to control when the source
will be compressed. It accepts a byte size value (for example `100b`,
`10kb`). Note, `compress` should be set to `true`.

[float]
==== Includes / Excludes

Allow to specify paths in the source that would be included / excluded
when it's stored, supporting `*` as wildcard annotation. For example:

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
{
    "my_type" : {
        "_source" : {
            "includes" : ["path1.*", "path2.*"],
            "excludes" : ["pat3.*"]
        }
    }
}
--------------------------------------------------